Three Sparkling Rings
by Lkay09
Summary: LilyTeddy -She won't say anything to anyone, delighting in her secret-


Everybody wants to know where they came from. The three bands of diamonds that have taken up residence on the ring finger of Lily's left hand. She won't say anything to anyone, delighting in her own secret and enjoying her family's insistent questions about them, keeping her lips sealed tight.

But then Victoire announces that she's pregnant. Bill is furious, because they aren't married. The entire family is shocked, because they had split up less than a month ago, and everyone knew it was painful for Victoire. All of them wonder (not in her presence, of course) if she is going to use the pregnancy to hold onto him and maybe they will get married? Except the happiness that had been floating around him, making his hair bright red instead of morose blue, is gone now.

Nobody can understand why the news of his first child isn't completely lighting up Teddy's life. Well, maybe one other person understands, but she won't speak to him. She just sits and twists her rings around her finger. The family doesn't ask about them anymore, their time being taken up by Victoire and her news.

And that's how it always is isn't it? Victoire, perfectly beautiful, blonde, thin, graceful – she gets all the attention, no matter what might be going on with anyone else. That's how she likes it. Lily, not perfectly beautiful but still gorgeous, red, curvy, clumsy – she gets shoved aside when Victoire wants the spotlight.

So Lily takes more pleasure in her secret, knowing it would hurt the cousin who always hurts her and who always wants to be more important and throws everyone else out of the way and under a bus.

"Lily," he says from behind her. She would know that voice anywhere, it has as many colors as his hair and eyes do. Lily closes her own eyes, the same green as her father and brother and grandmother, and prays for the strength to deal with him without leaping into his arms. She's already done the leaping without looking thing and it has ripped her apart because now –

His hands touch her waist and all thought ceases. Inhaling, she straightens her back and steps away, twirling the three sparkling rings again and again and again and again.

"I don't know what to do," he says softly and she shakes her head because she _knows_ that he wants her to tell him what to do. Except she can't, because Victoire needs his support, but Lily _needs_ him, and so she hasn't got the slightest clue of what to do.

He hates when she gets like this – distant, emotionally removed, completely closed off – and Lily Luna Potter can push her emotions away from something better than anyone else he knows. Usually, he can break past it and make her feel again (because Merlin knows how much she makes him feel), but this time he knows it won't happen. He watches the rings spin round and round and round her delicate finger. He put them there, promising her the world, and now he can't deliver it because he's responsible for someone else's world. Teddy doesn't want to resent his child, but it's pulling him away from the most amazing woman he's ever known and everything they should have together.

But all they've had is four weeks. Four amazing weeks, treasured and guarded close to their hearts, not even their families know, but now that peace is over. And they had been planning on telling the family in the next week.

Except nothing can ruin Victoire and her mood and her life and her child and her _perfection_ right now. So they can't tell anyone, and now there may not be anything to tell anymore.

"Figure it out," she replies softly, tangling her fingers in her hair. He watches the gesture and knows she's feeling more than she wants to because the time they've had together has been so brief and yet still so much more than anything either of them ever felt. Teddy gave up Victoire and their _tranquility_ and _perfection_ and _contented devotion_ for something **passionate** and **wild** and **crazy**. But it was _**love**_, not _devotion_ and it made him feel so raw and yet so insanely happy.

Then she walked out of the little garden, leaving him behind her, muttering an incantation that sends the rings softly spinning and turning and rolling and flying through the sky, starlight reflected in them and he catches them and realizes that she has tried to take back her heart and give him his. But it won't work because she will _alwaysalwaysalways_ have his heart, and he will _foreverandeverandever_ hold tightly to hers.

Everyone notices – except Victoire because all she cares about is her morning sickness and "Am I showing yet?" and planning her upcoming wedding to the father of her child – the absence of the rings on Lily's hand, but she still doesn't say anything. And everyone notices when Teddy's hair has become a seemingly permanent blue and Lily has become more emotionally closed and empty and they can't help but wonder at the timing.

And when he marries Victoire, he slides one small band onto her finger and looks into the blue eyes that he's now forever tied to and at her growing tummy. Part of him had been wishing that she was making it up, making it _all_ up, but she is pregnant and having his child and he hates her for it. He can feel green eyes burning him, but then they're gone and he's hollow and Victoire is glowing and hardly notices his misery.

"Teddy," comes the voice of Ginny Potter, his mother in everything but blood, "You are pretty much one of my sons, and so I feel like I have a right to ask: why did you marry her?"

He opens his mouth to reply and then his gaze is caught by a flash of auburn over her shoulder and all the Weasleys may have red hair, but he knows that shade by heart and his hair instantly changes to reflect it. Ginny looks over her shoulder and sees what he sees then turns back to face him and asks softly, "Why didn't you marry her?"

He struggles for an answer.

"You gave her the rings. You are the reason she was floating on air for four weeks. And yet here you are, married to someone you don't love, and dare I say…resent?" Teddy simply stares over her shoulder at Lily as she dances with one of her brothers. "This is the twenty-first century, Teddy," she lays a hand on his arm. "People have children and they don't always get married."

But Teddy is his father's son and so he does the right thing and stays with his wife and his child. But he hangs the rings on a silver chain and gives it to Lily so they can always spin from her neck and to make sure she never forgets them. And they have one last moment together of passion and then she leaves and goes to France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Romania, India and comes back with a little girl that she has adopted.

A little girl with color changing eyes and vibrant red hair, playing with rings on a chain, twisting them and turning them and spinning them around and around and around and around...

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**My second LL/T fic. I like this one better than the other I wrote. Reviews? And vote in the poll on my profile!**


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